The flora of the earth is constantly being re-distributed by natural and human forces. As plant species change locations, they affect ecosystems, but how? In this course, students will learn how invasive plants establish and spread in ecosystems and develop an understanding of the importance of invasive plants and their impacts on ecosystems from local to global scales.

Plant biology and associated careers through interaction with university, industry, and/or government agency biologists and/or upper division undergraduate students working in the various disciplines of plant biology.

Biology of plants grown for food, fiber, fun, or fuel. Plant life cycles in managed ecosystems and their role in global carbon and water cycles. Mechanisms plants use to drive and control their growth, propagate, and change to compete with other organisms in their environment.

Growth, development, morphology and staging of annual and perennial monocot and dicot plants produced for grain, forage and grazing. Evaluation of seed, grain and forage quality for plants of agronomic importance.

Characteristics of soils in relation to their appropriate uses and protection. Principles and practices using cooperative exercises including discussion, assessment, planning, problem-solving, writing, and presentation involving all aspects of soils.

Microbe, insect, and weed pests of plants in agricultural, landscape, and natural ecosystems. Potential impacts of new scientific, regulatory, and international trade developments on plant pests management.

Integration of principles of crop and soil science, plant breeding, climatology and integrated pest management in the development and evaluation of crop management practices. Efficient use of solar radiation, water, nutrients, heat, carbon dioxide, and other resources in field crop management.

Principles basic to the establishment, management, and utilization of forage crops and pastures. Plant identification and selection, seeding, fertilization, irrigation, forage quality and utilization, hay and silage preservation, and grazing management. The role of forages and ranges in developing a sustainable agriculture.

Grassland ecology and management is relevant to students with education and career goals in managing natural resources in Nebraska and the Great Plains. About 50% of the land area in Nebraska is classified as grassland (or rangeland) and is the land type with the most opportunity for enhancing biodiversity and wildlife habitat. Applying ecological principles and social values to managing rangeland resources, students will develop a knowledge and appreciation for the various grassland management uses and techniques available to resource managers.

Microbe, insect, and weed pests of plants in agricultural, landscape, and natural ecosystems. Potential impacts of new scientific, regulatory, and international trade developments on plant pests management.

Prereqs: Sophomore standing and completion of internship approval form. The internship proposal is subject to approval by the department.

P/N only. Written and oral report usually required.

Participation in agronomic applications and in agronomy-related areas of agribusiness; agronomic research in lab, greenhouse, or field; participation in farming practices other than those in which the student has had previous experience; or preparation of teaching materials.

Historical, cultural and biophysical constraints of American agriculture through the integration of Web-based sources (USDA geospatial databases), geographic information systems, and spatial/temporal models. Introduction to crops and evolution of agriculture in North America and available digital resources (biogeoinformatics) to understand the patterns, trends, people, places and processes of rural landscapes.

Principles of inheritance in plants and animals and their significance in biology and agriculture. Emphasis on the physical basis of heredity in families and populations. Laboratory problems and experiments illustrate principles of heredity.

The principles of range management within the ecosystem framework. Range improvement practices and grazing systems; plant control using biological, chemical and mechanical factors; prescribed burning; range seeding; range fertilization; and the integration of range with other forage resources.

Chemical and physical processes that influence the fate and transport of contaminants (inorganic, organic, microbial) in soil-water environments. Extent, fate, mitigation and impact of various sources of pollution. Remedial technologies used for environmental restoration of contaminated environments.

Survey of fungi in natural and human ecosystems: symbiotic relationships; as disease agents in humans, animals, and plants; applications in food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries; historical and current impacts on society.

Overview of types of agricultural enterprises. Basic accounting principles as they relate to agricultural businesses. Requires completion of a marketing plan specific to agricultural enterprises based on a business idea. Student team projects with emphasis on marketing.

Microbe, insect, and weed pests of plants in agricultural, landscape, and natural ecosystems. Potential impacts of new scientific, regulatory, and international trade developments on plant pests management.

Reading and critiquing, writing, and presenting scientific information. Use research data to compose a manuscript in standard scientific format, and prepare and present a poster to a general audience. Ethical issues in research and writing.

Capstone course. Requires participation in a three-day field trip prior to the beginning of the first semester. Students must notify instructor at time of early registration (dates are listed in Schedule of Classes). Cannot be taken "Pass/No Pass."

Application, expansion, and integration of principles from agricultural, biological, and physical sciences into the development and management of cropping systems.

Principles of plant physiology which underlie the relationship between plants and their physical, chemical and biotic environments. An introduction to the ecological niche, limiting factors and adaptation. An overview of the seed germination and ecology, plant and soil water relations, nutrients, plant energy budgets, photosynthesis, carbon balance and plant-animal interactions. An introduction to various field equipment used in ecophysiological studies.

Prereqs: Junior standing, MATH 106 or equivalent, 5 hrs physics, major in any of the physical or biological sciences or engineering; or permission.

Physical factors that create the biological environment. Radiation and energy balances of earth's surfaces, terrestrial and marine. Temperature, humidity, and wind regimes near the surface. Control of the physical environment through irrigation, windbreaks, frost protection, manipulation of light, and radiation. Applications to air pollution research. Instruments for measuring environmental conditions and remote sensing of the environment.

Basic steps required to produce genetically engineered crops. Genetic engineering procedures used to develop current crops and innovations that will lead to future products. Genetic engineering process and predicting how changes in different steps of the process influence the final crop. Application of genetic engineering technology to plan the development of new genetically engineered crops.

Application of classical and molecular genetic principles to the explanation of variation observed in plant families and populations. Interpretation of information gathered from whole plant trait observation and from molecular analysis. Relationships between crops and weeds. Examples from genetic studies on both crop and weed species are the basis of course.

Prereqs: For 439, 12 credits of agricultural or biological science, economics, or natural resources. For 839, enrolled in M.S. or Ph.D. program.

History of organic farming and horticultural systems, organic certification, nutrient and pest management in organic systems, planning organic enterprises including production and marketing, resilience of organic systems in ecological, economic, and social terms; future issues and potentials of organic food systems.

Characteristics of Great Plains ecosystems, interrelationships of ecological factors and processes, and their application in the management of grasslands. Interactions of fire, vegetation, grazing animals and wildlife.

Principles of crop physiology and developmental morphology in relation to function, growth, development, and survival of perennial forage, range, and turf plants. The relationship of physiology and morphological development on plant use and management.

Wildland plants that are important to grassland and shrub land ecosystem management and production. Distribution, utilization, classification, identification (including identification by vegetative parts), uses by Native Americans, and recognition of grasses, forbs, shrubs, exotic and wetland plants.

Measurement and monitoring of the important vegetation and environmental factors used to develop management guidelines in grasslands, savannas, woodlands, and wetlands. Emphasis on using ecosystem monitoring protocols for assessment of wildlife habitat, fuels management for wildland fire, livestock production, and watershed function. Requires field sampling and travel to local field sites.

Capstone course. All students required to participate in a one-week field trip in central or western Nebraska prior to beginning of fall semester. Therefore, students must notify instructor at time of early registration (Dates are given in class schedule.)

Analyzing the plant and animal resources and economic aspects of pasturage. Management of pasture and range for continued high production emphasized.

Chemical and mineralogical properties of soil components. Inorganic colloidal fraction. Structures of soil minerals as a means of understanding properties, such as ion exchange and equilibria; release and supply of nutrient and toxic materials; and soil acidity and alkalinity.

Permission required to register for 2 cr. Students registered for 3 cr will design, carry out, and report on an independent study project conducted during the term. Offered even-numbered calendar years. Lab 4-6.

Theory and practice of soil chemical analyses commonly encountered in research and industrial settings. Wet analyses of inorganic fraction of soil and operation of instrumentation necessary to quantify results of those analyses.

Discussion and practical application of principles and practices of measuring meteorological and related variables near the earth's surface including temperature, humidity, precipitation, pressure, radiation and wind. Performance characteristics of sensors and modern data collection methods are discussed and evaluated.

Using processes and strategies to identify and compare issues, make recommendations, demonstrate proficiency in field application as skills and techniques, and prepare cost estimates in the development of landscape management plans.

Holistic approach to the selection and analysis of planning strategies for protecting water quality from nonpoint sources of contamination. Introduction to the use of methods of analyzing the impact of strategies on whole systems and subsystems; for selecting strategies; and for evaluating present strategies.

Spatial relationship of soil properties on various parts of landscape typical of the Plains, causal factors, and predictions of such relationships on other landscapes. Grouping these properties into classes, naming the classes, and the taxonomy that results from this grouping. Application of a taxonomy to a real situation through making a field soil survey in a region representative of the Plains border, predicting land use response of various mapped units as it affects the ecosystem, and evaluating the effectiveness of the taxonomic system used in the region surveyed.

Emphasis on applied soil physics. Discussion of theoretical principles followed by field and laboratory exercises and applications. Fluxes of water, solutes, air, and heat through the soil. Emphasis on water infiltration, water retention, other soil hydraulic properties. Components of soil water balance. Management of soil water.

Development converts rural landscapes into housing, roads, malls, parks, and commercial uses. This process fragments landscapes and changes ecosystem functions, drives up land prices, and pushes agriculture into more marginal areas.This multi-disciplinary, experiential course guides students in learning about the urbanization process, the impacts on landscapes, people, and the community, and the choices that are available to informed citizens.

Capstone course. A two-semester sequence. Students should select one credit hour the first semester and three credits the second semester. The first semester will be used for planning, topic selection, and identifying a project adviser. The second semester will be used to carry out the research project, prepare a written report, and possibly an oral presentation.

Quantitative study of water relations in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Basic physical processes, which describe the movement of water in the soil and the atmosphere, and the physiological processes, which describe water movement inside of the plant. Stomata physiology and the effects of internal water deficits on photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen metabolism, cell division and cell enlargement. Results from integrative models used to study the relative importance of environmental versus physiological factors for several plant-environment systems.

Obtaining germplasm and genes from cultivated plants, wild relatives of cultivated plants, and the biosphere. Origination of crops, mutation genetics, biotechnology as a source of genes, chromosomal engineering and plant reproduction.

Types and causes of phenotype instability due to impacts of envrionmental factors. Topics include adaptation, impacts of G x E on selection and testing, selection of evaluation environments. Statistical concepts to describe/model ineractions, breeding for reliability across unpredictable environments, precision phenotyping, selection for specific stresses, use of QTL's for abiotic and biotic stress stability.

Consideration of current issues and new technologies affecting plant breeders and crop improvement. Topics may include patenting of germplasm, use of exotic germplasm, impact of international treaties, genome-wide selection, new breeding techniques and integration of technologies into breeding systems and related topics. Student input concerning potential topics is invited.

Prereqs: Undergraduate major in life sciences or related area, and a course in biochemistry

A Web-based course. Biochemical underpinnings of agricultural production and processing systems. Agricultural biotechnology; bioenergetics; kinetics and enzyme regulation; interaction of biomolecules with light, photosynthesis and the balance between anabolism and catabolism in microbes, plants and animals.

Principles and application of (IWM). Noxious and invasive weed species. Crops and weed control. Plant population shifts. Use of herbicides and the biologically effective dose. Critical period of weed control and weed threshold. Herbicide tolerant crops.

The mode of action and plant response to all the major herbicide families. Why herbicides with different modes of action can result in similar plant symptoms. Issues of crop safety and weed control. Role of integrating herbicide resistant crops and weed control in cropping systems.

Macro and micro nutrient elements and their function in the growth and development of plants. Role of single elements. Interaction and/or balances between elements and nutrient deficiency and/or toxicity symptoms as they affect the physiology of the whole plant. Relationship between crop nutrition and production and/or environmental considerations (e.g. yield, drought, temperature, pests).

A series of mini-courses. Access to the World Wide Web and E-mail are required. Principles and concepts of plant pathology, including relation of plant disease to crop production, environment, man, current, historical and emerging diseases of corn, soybeans, small grain, turf and sorghum, dry bean and alfalfa. Specific disease cycles, edipemiology and plant health management strategies.

A series of mini-courses. Access to the World Wide Web and E-mail are required. Principles and concepts of plant pathology, including relation of plant disease to crop production, environment, man, current, historical and emerging diseases of corn, soybeans, small grain, turf and sorghum, dry bean and alfalfa. Specific disease cycles, edipemiology and plant health management strategies.

A series of mini-courses. Access to the World Wide Web and E-mail are required. Principles and concepts of plant pathology, including relation of plant disease to crop production, environment, man, current, historical and emerging diseases of corn, soybeans, small grain, turf and sorghum, dry bean and alfalfa. Specific disease cycles, edipemiology and plant health management strategies.

Basic concepts of soil variability, its underlying causes. The impact spatial variability has on soil management, primarily for crop production. Geographic and geo-statistical concepts. Use of spatial information for more profitable crop production.

Ecological principles and their application to invasive species. Discussion of population level characteristics and community and ecosystem level effects of a wide variety of taxa including invasive microbial, fungal, plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate examples. Current global consequences and governmental policies/programs designed to limit the spread of invasives.

The chemical characteristics of forage components. The interactions with ruminant physiology and digestion that influence forage feeding value. The laboratory procedures used to evaluate forages for grazing livestock.

This course discusses the ecological principles of domesticated livestock grazing and their application to manage grazing lands. Theoretical and applied models of plant/animals interactions will be presented. Grazing systems and their management of ecosystem services will be presented as balance between production and conservation outcomes.

Understanding and use of crop simulation models and ability to build crop models. Studying principles and quantitative descriptions of crop production ecology. Offered fall semester of odd-numbered calendar years.

Offered spring semester of odd-numbered calendar years. Analysis and use of climatological data as applied to agricultural activities and the use of climatological information to assist in decision making.

Offered odd-numbered calendar years. Physiological and developmental aspects of hardiness and growth of crop plants as affected by light, temperature, wind, and water. Design, function, and limitations of controlled environment facilities in plant research.

Fate and ecotoxicological impacts of biologically foreign compounds in soil-water-plant environments; uptake, mechanisms of toxicity and metabolism in plants and other biota. Herbicides and other pesticides.

Theoretical concepts involved in planning breeding programs for the improvement of measurable morphological, physiological, and biochemical traits that are under polygenic control in crop plants of various types.

Offered even-numbered calendar years. Analytic procedures and research methods used in evaluating biochemical components and nutritive value of forages. An evaluation of the impact of forage quality on forage breeding and animal performance.

Examination of the theory and experimental evidence available to characterize the movement of chemicals in soil. Both saturated and unsaturated flow conditions examined. Initial presentation of basic theoretical concepts. Remainder of class a discussion of the literature.

Offered even-numbered calendar years. Topics in physical chemistry which have a special significance in the field of soil chemistry. Includes problems and outside readings in this area of soil chemistry.